With Young and Juan Lagares, the Mets have two true center fielders, which would help mitigate Cruz's defensive limitations — an important consideration given Citi Field's rather spacious dimensions. What obviously appeals to the Mets about Cruz is his power — his 27 home runs in 2013 were more than anybody in their lineup hit, and that was in 109 games as Cruz served a 50-game suspension.

Cruz has been a reliable power bat for the past five years, with 135 home runs and a .511 slugging percentage since 2009, and at the age of 33, should still have a couple of solid years of production left. The fact that Cruz received a qualifying offer from the Texas Rangers means that most teams would have to surrender a first-round pick to sign him, which plays into the Mets' favor. With their first-round choice protected as one of 2013's bottom 10 teams, the Mets would only have to sacrifice their second-round pick.

For a team that ranked 11th in the National League in scoring and 14th in OPS in 2013, upgrading on offense is the main offseason goal, and to be able to do it without having to trade away young pitching would be a coup.

The Mets hope that Young rebounds from a nightmare season with the Oakland Athletics. Cruz would be more of a sure thing.

The Rangers' trade of Ian Kinsler to the Detroit Tigers for Prince Fielder means that Elvis Andrus is penciled in as the shortstop in Texas, with Jurickson Profar at second base. That means the Cardinals, widely thought to have been targeting Andrus via trade to be their starting shortstop, must look elsewhere.

As such, the National League champions can be linked to pretty much every shortstop in baseball not named Derek Jeter. Bernie Miklasz of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch has a full rundown of all of the options.

There probably will be a lot of talk about Stephen Drew, especially with Dan Connolly of the Baltimore Sun reporting that the Baltimore Orioles "aren't trading J.J. Hardy," but it is hard to see the justification for surrendering a first-round pick to pay big money for a solid but less than dazzling defensive shortstop with a .329 career on-base percentage.

The Cardinals have had success in the past getting a center fielder from the Angels.

Andrus, an excellent defender who is five years younger than Drew, has a .339 career on-base percentage. He has another year left at $6.5 million before his eight-year, $118 million extension kicks in. Considering the trend of salaries across baseball, Andrus should still be the Cardinals' top target, because, as it turns out, the Rangers' trade of Kinsler does not necessarily mean that Andrus' future in Texas is assured.

On Friday, the Cardinals made a move to change their infield. They traded third baseman David Freese to the Los Angeles Angels along with relief pitcher Fernando Salas. In exchange they acquired outfielders Peter Bourjas and Randal Grichuk. That likely means the Cardinals will move Matt Carpenter to third, as expected, and have a surplus of outfielders. | Spector: Weighing Cardinals-Angels deal | Fantasy Source: Breaking down the trade

This is the effect that qualifying offers have on the free-agent market, and both Napoli and Granderson turned down those one-year, $14.1 million deals to seek more on the open market. Because two-thirds of the teams in baseball have to forfeit their first-round pick to be able to sign such free agents, the players' value drops and contending teams try to see what other options they might be able to pursue without giving up that draft choice.

As a result, the biggest deals of the early part of free agency are for Marlon Byrd, Tim Hudson and Jason Vargas — all talented, but all part of the middle of the market, not the top end.

Result: Even after rejecting qualifying offers, players' best bets can be returning to their original teams.

The free agents who do not receive the offers benefit from greater competition for their services. With 13 players receiving qualifying offers, this system works to the advantage of a larger chunk of the players' union, while also benefitting teams.

It's a part of the collective bargaining agreement, then, that works well. Maybe not for Napoli and Granderson, but at the same time, there are a lot worse things than playing for the Red Sox and Yankees.

Of the free-agent options available and mentioned, Ricky Nolasco makes the most sense. Except for his 16 games with the Los Angeles Dodgers after a trade from the Miami Marlins, the right-hander has spent his entire career in the National League East, and he has had success at Nationals Park, with a 2.44 ERA in eight starts there against Washington teams of varying strength over the years.

Matt Garza also makes sense for the Nationals, given his strong performance in the National League with the Chicago Cubs the past three years, compared against sometimes uneven showings in the American League with the Minnesota Twins, Tampa Bay Rays and Rangers.

The question for the Nationals will be how much they are willing to spend to make an already good rotation better. Their team is good enough to contend even going for bargains at the back end of the rotation, so Washington can and should stick to the long-term plan and avoid sacrificing the future for what amounts to luxury in the present.